>> we have two mainly threats on the horizon. the fiscal cliff and tax increases for everybody if the deal is not reached this week, but potential strike, law

shoreman threatening to walk off the ports in the east on gulf coast. this could disrupt billions of dollars in shipments. joining us now ed butowsky, a hell of a way to start a week with the threat after strike. to put it in context, when l.a. had a dock workers strike ten years ago, it cost a billion dollars a day. this is going to affect ports in newark, houston, miami, this could be several billion dollar hits every day to our economy? >> yeah, and i tell you, when you look at it, it's really similar. there are some parallels to the fiscal cliff discussion. because the arguments are about are the royalty payments that the dock workers get for bringing merchandise on board and unloading the cargo and what the similarity is really that we're not-- they're not talking about more business, they're talking about how do we split up the same pie and same thing with the fiscal cliff, we're not talking growing the economy, how do you split up the economy getting the tax revenue and the same thing with

the longshoreman strike. which is probably going to happen they say there's absolutely no negotiation on this, they absolutely want to see more money coming to them and the other side absolutely no way in the world so that's going to take us from maine all the way down to texas much bigger than the strike we had on the west coast ten years ago. >> now, the president usually sides with the unions, we all know that, but in this case, a strike that really could have devastating consequences on the economy, particularly in the middle of the fiscal cliff negotiations. do you think the president might be more even-handed here dealing with the unions? >> well, i really don't know. you never know what this president is going to say and what policies are going to come out, but the longshoremen is an influential union. to see him go on the other side of it would be surprising, probably take a step back and not intervene too much. so, you know, it's a look and see and a wait and see, quite frankly. but if this does happen, the ripple effect is going to be tremendous because you're going to see prices go up there as well. and that's going to be passed

onto the consumer. so, either way, we're talking about more money out of the pocket of individuals, regardless, you know, how this thing, you know, comes to to be. >> and this could also have serious effects on commodities markets, particularly oil. one of the ports affected houston. a lot of oil goes in on ought of that port. >> yeah, i mean, david when we hear the news reports and instead of looking at them and going on to the next story, understand that these stories are a direct, you know, impact on your wallet. so, if these -- if the longshoremen win, you're going to see prices rise across the board. it's inflationary and as a result gets passed on to you as a consumer, it does matter how these things get resolved. the last time we saw a big strike was the late '70s, during a stagflation period. similar to what we have now. the longshoremen last time they struck was in the '70s, it's all about dollars and cents rights now. >> right now the markets are

down and futures are trading down and we'll know in a couple of moments when the markets open how they shake out. but the real concern right now. i think one of the reasons the markets is down in futures trading is concern about the fiscal cliff. what happens after the 1st of january to the markets if we go over the fiscal cliff? >> well, you know, it's -- you're going to see a sell off because it's going to be a hit on earnings. you always have to look at the news stories and does that affect forecasted earnings or interest rates? and this does all of that so this will be a negative on the stock market. forecasts are anywhere from a 10 to 15% drop in the stock market based on earnings expectations and hit to earnings. this will be devastating to the economy, to the stock market and it needs to be, it doesn't look like it's going to happen, david. it looks like we're going to get a little bit of extension it it of the tax, the bush tax credits or the bush tax cuts and see unemployment benefits, you know, extended for about 2 million people. and as a result, we're going to see a lot of discussion and

little results except higher taxes, that's for sure. >> and one thing that surprised me, we know that taxes will remain the same until the end of the year. we assume that taxes are going to go up after the first of the year. so, why aren't people cashing out right now if they have gains, cash out right now, collect your gains at the lower tax rates and buy back in in january depending on what happens with the fiscal cliff? >> yeah, i mean, i actually have a lot of clients where we are literally selling their portfolio, capturing their cost basis now and reestablishing a new cost basis because we know for a fact we'll see 3.8% next year just from the obamacare tax and other taxes and we're seeing people do that. you're not necessarily seeing it in the market because about, i think something close to very, very small percentage of the individuals affect the stock market. you're seeing that with individuals, but not reflected in the market as much because big institutions control the stock market. >> how many of your clients,percentage-wise, how many of your clients are doing that, cashing out this year to

lock in rates at the lower rates? >> i would say half of them. i'm getting calls all the time. everybody is concerned about this and they're calling and saying, what do we do as a result of this and i'm giving the best advice. we've got nice gains, if we are thinking about selling the next two or three years, if we have enough money to pay the taxes now, we'll go ahead and do it. >> got you. ed butowsky, good to see you. >> when we come back, we're going to speak to the first governor to pass an assault weapons ban back in 1990. so what does he think about the n.r.a.'s comments over the weekend. ask former new jersey governor, jim florio. that and the start of trading coming right after this. how do trars using technical analysis streamline their process? at fidelity, we do it by merging two tools into one. combining your customized charts with leading-edge analysis tools from recognia so you can quickly spot key trends

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>> thank you for joining us this morning, we're about 30 seconds away from the opening bell on the markets. futures are down a little bit. a lot of concerns about the fiscal cliff. we mentioned earlier, also concerns about this potential strike that could affect ports all over the northeast and in the gulf as well. so you've got ports in houston, got ports in newark, a lot of commodities moving in and out and this could be a lousy way to start the new year. as we do hear the opening.

[bell ringing] . there's no movement as of yet, but expecting slow trading and the market goes down and we'll wait and see how exactly it shakes out. nicole, there's already some trouble over the new blackberry ten that has some rim investors concerned. tell us what that is. >> well, this one is concerning investors late last week, we saw the stock drop over 20% last week, on friday, and now we're seeing much of the same. the down arrow continues here for research in motion. the question, it's not bad enough that they face intense computation in this case, but in this case they're talking about the service fees they charge the wireless carriers and generate about a third of their revenue. how these encrypted messages they would charge fees to the wireless carriers in order to do this. now, ceo has presented tiered fees whichhhe hasn't broken down. the big picture, he says, going to pressure profitability. that doesn't sound good. so in addition to the big losses on friday, we're seeing down arrow again today, and new pbc

parib paribas. >> there is some hope for the blackberry, we gas prices, the decline in gas prices seemed to have stopped for now. the national average for a gallon of regular is now $3.24. that's up slightly over the weekend. and that is according to triple-a. the highest price is no surprise. it's in hawaii because of course, it costs so much to ship gas there. 3.97 a gallon is how much the president's going to be paying while he's on vacation. new york is the second highest and there's no excuse for that except taxes. the cheapest gas is in missouri, $2.96. the only state below $3 in the entire united states. as the debate over banning assault weapons continues, more people are lining up to gee an assault weapon. worried that they won't be able to later.

our next guest was the first governor to pass the assault weapons ban back in 1990. joining us now is governor james florio. good morning, good to see you. >> thank you very much. >> the bottom line here is whether or not these assault bans work, whether, as a result of putting the assault bans in motion, whether it was the local assault ban or federal assault bans, do they actually reduce gun violence? is this any proof that that happens? >> well, the answer is that the communities involved will make the determination, but the public interest is not served with greater access to oozies and ak-47's. and when you have a person inclined to violence, knives over that uzis with a clip. and kickly with guns to assault weapons, these are things used

in war, specifically designed to kill as many people as rapidly as possible. >> the assault weapons ban only lasted ten years, the president now in favor of renewing it, had the opportunity when he had both the house and the senate, he did not do that. the centers for disease control and prevention, i think you'll agree is a pretty neutral organization, came out with a study whether or not the federal assault ban reduced gun violence. this is what they said. the ban and other gun control attempts were insufficient, there is insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of any of the firearm laws reviewed for preventing violence. if the c.d.c. can't see any direct results of the bans and reduction of violence, what good are they? >> the difficulty is, they don't have the research money that the n.r.a. has worked feverishly to cut off for the c.d.c. to make

those determine nayses. >> the c.d.c. has come up with reports since then, 2005, 2004 when it ended, and there wasn't any in determining these bans. >> we can't make the determination in we haven't got sufficient research. common sense tells you, we have 300-- fl let me stop you there. a tremendous amount of research has been done on both sides. obviously, there's money in the n.r.a., but money pouring into the anti-gun groups as well. >> no, the research, the neutral observer would be the c.d.c. they need more money for research and no one has come to a conclusion, one way or the other. and common sense tells you, you have no purpose for civilians being out there. how many people have to die in the different tremendous miskerrs with the weapons, by definition are designed to kill people? >> with he wiell, you say there purpose of it. millions of americans buy the

weapons and i believe there are 15 million americans who bought the ar-15's. good law abiding citizens who bought them eveoverwhelmingly s. peggy noonan, a republican a fair-minded person not always a partisan observer, was on talk shows yesterday and here is what she said about people who do decide to buy guns. >> they also have guns because they are afraid. they think their society and culture are very frail and in trouble. they think some day they may be on their own. they want guns to protect themselves and protect their families. i think that has to be respected and not denigrated. >> don't you agree that the right to choose to buy a gun has to be respected? >> well, the difference between guns and an assault weapon ban. >> but peggy was talking about all-- >> yes, and there's a right to have a constitutional right to have a gun, but the court decision also was that reasonable restrictions on ownership of guns are

permissible and talked about reasonable restriction. >> isn't that the type of person who buys the guns and making sure the checks are done as they should be? >> that's a whole different issue with the checks and right now i was embarrassed to watch the congress earlier in the year take up a bill, ban the bill sell a gun to a person on the terrorism list. the bill didn't pass and today, someone on the terrorism list is eligible to buy a gun. that makes no sense whatsoever. >> governor, if we can talk about the fiscal cliff, because you have a lot of experience with taxes. a lot of people say you lost reelection because of the tax issue, because you instituted taxes and many people felt you betrayed a promise the way the first president bush did and you raised tacxes and governor jon corzine raised taxes and is there a political risk doing this? >> there's a political risk doing nothing. and the question what do you buy

with taxes? if you think that the services are being provided adequately, fine, you don't need revenues. the need for the service, then you need-- >> the president's increased spending by 800 billion dollars a year, that's a 25%. he's only going to get 100 billion by raising taxes under the best case scenario, still going to need 700 million. >> i suspect what's happening now. no one wants the responsibility increasing taxes on the 98% of people who make less than $250,000, so you're going to have the combination. >> governor james florio, wonderful to see you. appreciate it, merry christmas. well, energy guzzler, china's coal imports are almost up 35% since this time last year. the international energy agency warns that coal is on track to be the world's chief energy source by 2017 mainly because of china. what's an environmentalist to do about all this of. we asked bob deans of the natural resources defense

council at the top of the hour. stay tuned. and let's go back to nicole for a check on microsoft right now. of course that's stuart's favorite stock. what's it doing? >> that's right, he always discloses that he owns some shares. well, if he were to be watching right this moment he'd be disappointed because the stock here is down nearly 1%. the biggest loser in the dow jones industrials and the experts have been watching the shopping this holiday season, are not seeing the shoppers really buying windows 8, the latest microsoft software and saying while the parking lots have been full in the malls and such and apple store is bustling and people are leaving with packages, while people are intrigued with microsoft 8 they're not really getting in there and buying the new computers. so weak pc sales are hurting microsoft overall and windows 8 is just not bringing them in. down 1%, 27.20. >> stuart's symbol, when the stock is above 30, he's smiling

and when it's below 30 never smiling, thank goodness he's not here, i don't want to see him pouting. >> you've seen that happen before. time four your seven early movers, herbalife will hold that the company is some kind of pyramid scheme. shares lost 19% on friday, trading at 26.90. it's down almost, well, a little over a percent. vornado realty trust expects a wider loss on its stake on toys "r" us in the currently quarter and right now trading down a tick. chip maker, microinternational citing weak demand and google is developing an x-phone to rival apple and samsung. that market is getting more and more crowded, google stock is down about 1/2 a percentage point. and a schizophrenia drug gets

approval and that's trading way down right now, perhaps it goes down on the news. still no details from rim, by the way, about service fees when it launches the blackberry 10 next month and no losses there on research in mitt romney, continuing to go to the down side. groupon by the way has acquired commerce interface. e-commerce, shares lost 76% this year and here is where they're trading, down about 1 1/4%. had a lot more to come. the connecticut shooting brought assault weapons and mental illness into the spotlight. we talked a little about it with governor florio, so how many of you favor a ban on assault weapons? and how many of you think the mentally ill should be under even stricter observation? scott rasmussen of rasmussen reports has the answers and that's coming next.

>> let's take a look at the big board. as you can see, it's down, but not significantly. again, not much trading was expected today. but there's a lot of trading concerns about the fiscal cliff. again, a lot of people are already on vacation this trading day ends at 1 p.m. today. so we only have a half day of trading, but the market is down and worries about the fiscal cliff and as we mentioned before, perhaps worries about impending strike with longshoremen along the east coast and the gulf coast, so we'll keep a sharp eye on that. let's check the price of oil, it's down as well today. off about 50 cents and it had

been off 30 cents and continuing to go down again, perhaps because of concerns about a slowing economy, if in fact, we do go over the fiscal cliff. well, since the the horrific shooting in connecticut we've heard lots of ideas on how to keep our children safer, but what do the people really want? scott rasmussen joining us now with a look at his latest polls on these issues. scott, good to see you. in general, i imagine the move in favor of gun control is increasing, correct? >> it has. in fact. 47% say they want stricter gun control laws at the highest level of support we've ever seen. 55% want to see a ban on assault weapons or semi automatic weapons. david, people want something to be done. they know there are no simple solutions and the world can't be made perfectly safe, but they're looking at gun control and limits on violent video games and movies and concerned about mental illness. david: we're looking at the favor assault weapons ban number.

the 55% you've mentioned. we've been there before. we had a federal assault weapons ban and we've debated the governor of new jersey how effective that was. and were the numbers about the same leading into that assault ban? >> you know, there's enough difference, you can't compare numbers precisely and i think it's more an attitude, right now, the people are saying they want something done. there is a-- and again, there's not a belief that banning assault weapons is going to eliminate horrors we had just a couple of weeks ago, but there's a strong move that something could be, should be done and by the way, part of that means stricter enforcement of existing gun laws. david: and of course, also part that have means more restrictions on background checks, more restrictions on people who may be mentally ill. 71% of the response dents to your poll suggest there should be stricter controls for the mentally ill.

of course the question, what mentally ill is. when you have so many opinions so hot because of the news flashing here, you run the danger of making rules that are not well thought out. >> and again that's why i emphasize that people want something dob done and thought out in the heat of the moment might not be the best time for the guidelines. >> for example, wayne lapierre was on yesterdayyand comment lunatics like the guy for the recent shooting should not have had a gun. immediately the american psychiatric association came in defending the term lunatics, saying it's improper for wayne lapierre to castigate those people who are considered lunatics for those responsible for gun violence. so, you have all kinds of sort of crazy things going on in terms of how you define certain people and who should get guns and who shouldn't. >> right, and think about any

societal issue. you know, how do you deal with children? what's the best way to bring them up? well, there is no simple answer. you can't say spanking is the ultimate answer or not spanking is the ultimate answer. there are different circumstances and different kids and everybody responds differently. when you start talking about differents, and treatment of the mentally ill, and how they should have access to guns, well, there is a rational response and most americans are thinking that someone who is not thinking clearly should not have a gun in their hand. and how you codify that in law, that's a different issue. david: thank you very much. >> thanks, david. david: it's time for your morn gold report. as you can see, gold is up just .010%, 20 cents, hovering around the 1660 mark for quite some time now, for the past week, again, trying to find a level, a support level. 1,662 was thought to be a very important level. it did go below that, but yet to

drop significantly after that. well, you know what it's likes to try to get a day off from a small business or the company you happen to work for. so, do a different set of rules apply if you work for uncle sam? shibani joshi and adam shapiro are here and did not take the day off from work and probably they couldn't. we'll talk about that next. ♪ the wise way to say merry christmas to you ♪

>> well, we have no deal on the fiscal cliff and the president is vacationing in hawaii. not bad. and here is his response, by the way, to abc's jake tapper from the news conference last week and asked the president about his first four years in office. here was the president's response and i have to quote him here. i've been president of the united states dealing with the worst economic crisis since the great depression and the auto industry on the verge of collapse, two wars and i don't think i've been on vacation. he is now. >>. >> he is new and give mimm a break, it's christmas eve and it looks bad when he everyone is sitting around waiting for a deal to get done in congress if he's the leader of the vacation and got to set an example to

some extent. david: maybe you could go to somewhere in maryland or something, but to go all the way to hawaii for a brief break, are you okay with that, adam? >> i've been to maryland and i would choose hawaii. david: but you don't have air force one. >> no, the bottom line, the president is sitting in the catbird seat as they'd say in indiana. and i don't want to use the word win. david: he uses the word win. >> right, i mean, he holds the cards, the cards in his hand and he knows that. david: that's exactly what he said, by the way, to john boehner, according to some notes from inside the meeting he said, hey, look, i won, i win, i don't have to compromise, you guys have to do the compromising. thank you, gang, we'll see more of you coming up. new at 10, china is set to become the largest consumer of coal. still, the u.n. kind of gives them a pass on so-called dirty energy even while they criticize

the u.s. for not being green enough. we try to level the playing field with a leading environmentalist. stay tuned.